verbena-19

About

How much of Earth's atmosphere must we contaminate? How much of our lands and waters must we pollute? How much of our resources must we plunder, deplete? How many species must we ravage, despoil, extinguish? How many people must we degrade, deprive, destroy with toxic wastes and wars, before we learn to respect one another, to live in harmony on this planet, our Home?
"All living beings are brothers and sisters, nourished from the same source of life.." -- Thich Nhat Hanh

About Me

I was born in Eastern Europe during the height of the
Stalinist regime's reign of terror. Thus, I know what it is like to live under a repressive, dictatorial regime. The fear and terror -- as dissident friends and family members were tortured, imprisoned and some were executed -- is indelibly etched in my memory. That is the reason I have always been an ardent advocate of freedom, social justice, civil liberties, human rights and a voice of peace. The way I see it, war is morally wrong, regardless of who wages it, for whatever reason. No piece of land or commodity is worth the sacrifice of one human life. We are all members of the same race - the "human race" - and must learn to coexist peacefully. Our planet cannot sustain us much longer if we do not stop our wars, nukes, polluting, deforestation, and the wasteful, gluttonous consumption and depletion of our natural resources.

âA satisfyingly virulent, comical, absurd, deeply grieving true portrait of how things work today in the sleek factories of conglomerate book producers... A skillful novel of manners -- of very bad mannersâ

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

As many of my regular readers and fellow bloggers know, I've been having lots of problems with Blogger. I have tried switching over to their new version, but apparently they are not yet set up for blogs with so many posts. Consequently, I have now started my blog on Word Press. It will be very slow going, as I am a novice when it comes to the technicalities of blogs/posting... In the meantime, I will occasionally be posting here until I get all my links, etc. in order on the new site.

In October 2006 OCAP and the Health Providers Against Poverty began Round II of special diet clinics. These special diet clinics are being organized under strict government regulations designed to block access to this money. The government failed.

The special diet is a government provision that allows people on welfare and disability to receive funds for dietary needs when prescribed by a nurse or doctor. In 2005 OCAP began publicizing and organizing clinics with health providers for people on assistance to get the special diet. Forty million dollars later the City and Province began attempting to shut us down. For ten months we were unable to hold clinics and thousands of people lost much needed money.ROUND II Begins!In three months close to 1000 people have gone through our clinics. We face a government reaching the end of its term that has raised assistance rates by just 5%- an insulting fraction of what it would take for rates to be livable. We face government at each level that intentionally deny people the means to get by.

But the government faces communities that refuse to go back to the old choices between dignity or rent. They face people who have joined the fight for a decent income, who are demanding it from their welfare workers, their city councillors and their MPPs. They face people willing to fight for what they deserve.

Please support us- Come out to hear from the people making this struggle happen.

While the Bush administration and its neocon supporters have long been offering up a vision of a vast imperial enemy-in-the-making that they call "Islamo-fascism," Klare, in part 1, discovered quite another, more realistic and chilling set of possibilities that he dubbed "Energo-fascism" -- or the militarization of the global struggle over ever-diminishing supplies of energy. There, he focused on the Pentagon's changing role in global energy politics. Now, he moves on to energy blackmail in a great-power world and the Big-Brother-style dangers of making nuclear power a major future alternative source of energy. Tom

Petro-Power and the Nuclear Renaissance

Two Faces of an Emerging Energo-fascism (Part 2)By Michael T. Klare

Not "Islamo-fascism" but "Energo-fascism" -- the heavily militarized global struggle over diminishing supplies of energy -- will dominate world affairs (and darken the lives of ordinary citizens) in the decades to come. This is so because top government officials globally are increasingly unwilling to rely on market forces to satisfy national energy needs and are instead assuming direct responsibility for the procurement, delivery, and allocation of energy supplies. The leaders of the major powers are ever more prepared to use force when deemed necessary to overcome any resistance to their energy priorities. In the case of the United States, this has required the conversion of our armed forces into a global oil-protection service; two other significant expressions of emerging Energo-fascism are: the arrival of Russia as an "energy superpower" and the repressive implications of plans to rely on nuclear power.

Energy Haves and Have-nots

With global demand for energy constantly rising and supplies contracting (or at least failing to keep pace), the world is being ever more sharply divided into two classes of nations: the energy haves and have-nots. The haves are the nations with sufficient domestic reserves (some combination of oil, gas, coal, hydro-power, uranium, and alternative sources of energy) to satisfy their own requirements and be able to export to other countries; the have-nots lack such reserves and must make up the deficit with expensive imports or suffer the consequences.

From 1950 to 2000, when energy was plentiful and cheap, the distinction did not seem so obvious as long as the have-nots possessed other forms of power: immense wealth (like Japan); nuclear weapons (like Britain and France); or powerful friends (like the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries). Needless to say, for poor countries possessing none of these assets, being a have-not state was a burden even then, contributing mightily to the debt crisis that still afflicts many of them. Today, these other measures of power have come to seem less important and the distinction between energy haves and have-nots correspondingly more significant -- even for wealthy and powerful countries like the United States and Japan.

A pan-Canadian Day of Action called by the Canadian Peace Alliance. A call to activists in the GTA West area to demonstrate in Mississauga called by the Mississauga Coalition for Peace and Justice (MCPJ)MEETING TO ORGANIZE for MARCH 17 :DATE: Sunday January 21TIME: NoonPLACE: Palestine House, 3195 Erindale Station Rd., just north of Dundas.

PROPOSED EVENT –Saturday March 17Place: Public square at SE corner of Hurontario and Dundas StreetsTime: 10:30 am -12 pmTransportation to Toronto Stop the War Coalition Rally

March 17 will will be a national and international day of action against the wars inAfghanistan and Iraq. Join peace networks throughout the world to stand against imperialism and oppression.DEMANDS:End the occupation of Afghanistan and IraqFreedom for PalestineDefend civil liberties in CanadaNo to Islamophobia, No to Racism

Support Mississauga with its annual demonstration against war, before joining thelarger GTA rally in Toronto. Please send this call out far and wide, and let us knowif you can make it, or are interested in participating in March 17 organizing - – hope to see you there!CONTACT: mcpj@resist.ca

The Mississauga Coalition for Peace and JusticeWebsite: www.justpeace.ca / www.mcpj.orgOpen “The Windows of Dissent, in which activists take down the first fenceson the streets and in their minds” - Naomi Klein, GTA Activist

The growing threat of military action against Iran was made very clear last week as President Bush used his prime time "surge" speech to issue threats against the people of Iran. This speech was immediately followed by a U.S. attack on the Iranian consulate in northern Iraq and the arrest of Iranian consular personnel.

As this time, the U.S. has deployed two full carrier groups to the Persian Gulf. Each carrier carries more than 80 combat aircraft including F/A-18 Hornets, F-14 Tomcats, SH-60 Seahawks, S-3B Vikings, E-2C Hawkeyes and EA-6B Prowlers, capable of flying more than 150 strikes a day. In addition, each carrier group includes guided missile cruisers, fast frigates, guided missile destroyers, and submarines, all equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles.

We know from reports last year that the Pentagon's Central Command and Strategic Command planners are already identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an attack and that the planned strikes could kill thousands of Iranian people. We must mobilize now to against the threat of a new war. Over the next few days and weeks, Stop War On Iran will be organizing meetings, rallies, and protests across the country to build a movement to stop another disastrous war.

So far, we've gotten more than 20,000 signatures on the Stop War On Iran petition, and we've sent nearly half a million petitions to Bush, Cheney, Congress, and Halliburton. But we must do more--the threat of an imminent attack is growing. We need your help. We cannot count on politicians (of either major party) to stop the war--we must build a grassroots movement to stop another brutal war. Here's how you can help:

The attack will be launched from the sea and Patriot missiles will guard all oil-producing countries in the region, they add. Recent statements emanating from the United States indicate the Bush administration’s new strategy for Iraq doesn’t include any proposal to make a compromise or negotiate with Syria or Iran.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16169.htm

“We have also noted to Minister Rice our decision to end any temporary or transitional solutions including a state with temporary borders because we do not believe it to be a realistic choice that can be built upon,” Mr. Abbas said during a joint news conference with the secretary of state.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16167.htm

===Absolute Power

The real reason the Bush administration won't back down on Guantanamo.

In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech delivered at New York's Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 -- a year to the day before he was murdered -- King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." Audio and transcripthttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm

===Remember Segregation

Founded in the core belief that segregation is, was and has always been wrong, this campaign is intended to make people stop, think and perhaps get a little uncomfortable in the process of realizing the modern day importance of Dr. King's life.http://www.remembersegregation.org/

Norman Solomon writes: "President Bush may be a headless horseman. But the biggest problem is what he rode in on. Martin Luther King Jr. had a good name for it 40 years ago: 'The madness of militarism.' We can blame Bush all we want - and he does hold the reins right now - but his main enablers these days are the fastidious public servants in Congress. They keep preparing the hay, freshening the water, oiling the saddle, even while criticizing the inappropriately jocular rider. And when the band plays 'Hail to the Jockey,' most of the grown-up stable boys and girls can't help saluting.

[2] Bush's Iraq Plan: Goading Iran Into WarBy Trita Parsi, IPS News. Posted January 13, 2007.http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/46654/There was little new about the U.S. strategy in Iraq, but on Iran, the president spelled out a plan that appears to be aimed at goading Iran into war with the United States.

This January, Tomdispatch has been focusing on the Pentagon, the imperial path, and militarization. Last week, Nick Turse explored the way Pentagon strategists, having taken possession of our future, are writing their own dystopian science fiction scenarios about how to fight in Baghdad 2025 and other urban megaslums of the planet (as American troops may soon be doing in Baghdad's huge Shiite slum of Sadr City). Then, Frida Berrigan considered the massively profitable business operation the Pentagon was running off fictional futures and the all-too-real weapons systems that will result from it.

Today, Michael Klare, an expert on resource wars and the author of the indispensable Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependence on Imported Petroleum, offers a startling vision of the grim energy future that the Pentagon is actually helping to create -- as well as the ruthless scrambles for energy resources, the Great Power energy races, and the kind of Big Brotherhood that may lie in our near future. This is the first of a major two-part Tomdispatch series on the possible emergence of a new phenomenon in our world that Klare dubs "Energo-fascism." Tom

Is Energo-fascism in Your Future?

It has once again become fashionable for the dwindling supporters of President Bush's futile war in Iraq to stress the danger of "Islamo-fascism" and the supposed drive by followers of Osama bin Laden to establish a monolithic, Taliban-like regime -- a "Caliphate" -- stretching from Gibraltar to Indonesia. The President himself has employed this term on occasion over the years, using it to describe efforts by Muslim extremists to create "a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom." While there may indeed be hundreds, even thousands, of disturbed and suicidal individuals who share this delusional vision, the world actually faces a far more substantial and universal threat, which might be dubbed: Energo-fascism, or the militarization of the global struggle over ever-diminishing supplies of energy.

Unlike Islamo-fascism, Energo-fascism will, in time, affect nearly every person on the planet. Either we will be compelled to participate in or finance foreign wars to secure vital supplies of energy, such as the current conflict in Iraq; or we will be at the mercy of those who control the energy spigot, like the customers of the Russian energy juggernaut Gazprom in Ukraine, Belarus, and Georgia; or sooner or later we may find ourselves under constant state surveillance, lest we consume more than our allotted share of fuel or engage in illicit energy transactions. This is not simply some future dystopian nightmare, but a potentially all-encompassing reality whose basic features, largely unnoticed, are developing today.

These include:

* The transformation of the U.S. military into a global oil protection service whose primary mission is to defend America's overseas sources of oil and natural gas, while patrolling the world's major pipelines and supply routes.

As North Korea’s recent nuclear test demonstrated, nuclear weapons continue to pose a real and growing danger.But there may be a silver lining to North Korea’s mushroom cloud, because it has exposed the staggering level of U.S. nuclear hypocrisy.Just ten days after the North Korean test, the National Nuclear Security Administration of the Department of Energy announced its intention to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the modernization of the U.S. nuclear weapons manufacturing complex, under a plan called “Complex 2030.”

The only good thing about “Complex 2030,” the U.S. plan to modernize its nuclear weapons complex and replace its entire nuclear arsenal with new “Reliable Replacement Warheads” by the year 2030, is that it’s visible.The proposed project, which could cost more than $150 billion over 25 years, is tantamount to a U.S. declaration of “nukes forever,” and a repudiation of its obligation under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to end the arms race “at an early date” and to negotiate “in good faith” the elimination of its nuclear arsenal.

Complex 2030 has not gone unnoticed by North Korea, which issued an official reponse: “This is clear proof that [the United States] is putting spurs to the moves to bolster is modern nuclear force, increasingly depending on nukes in realizing its strategy for world domination.”

Under the National Environmental Policy Act, the initial phase of the EIS process provides for public input into the “scope” of the environmental review, which must, by law, analyze “reasonable alternatives.”Scoping meetings on Complex 2030 were recently held in a dozen locations around the United States, in communities near nuclear weapons facilities and in Washington, DC.The “public comment” period will remain open until January 17, 2007.

Indefinite maintenance of a huge, sophisticated nuclear arsenal, by the only country that has so far used nuclear weapons, is an unreasonable, unacceptable, and unlawful alternative.The only reasonable alternative is nuclear abolition.The United States, in compliance with its obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, should commit to the elimination of nuclear weapons no later than 2030, by initiating negotiations leading to conclusion of a verifiable treaty, under strict and effective international control.

Help turn the Complex 2030 EIS process into a national referendum on the future of nuclear weapons!Cast your “vote” for the elimination of nuclear weapons by printing out, filling in and mailing copies of the attached “ballot” to the Department of Energy, your two Senators and your Representative.The official “public comment period” ends January 17, 2007, but there’s no time limit for contacting your elected representatives. .

Mike McConnell, the man President Bush tapped to replace John Negroponte as National Intelligence Director, has been a leading figure in outsourcing U.S. intelligence operations to private industry. McConnell is a former director of the NationalSecurity Agency and the current director of defense programs at Booz Allen. We take a look at McConnell and the privatization of intelligence with journalistTim Shorrock.------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -National Intelligence Director John Negroponte warned Thursday that al-Qaeda poses the gravest threat to the United States and is rebuilding its strength fromsecure hideouts in Pakistan. His comments were made in written testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of his annual threat assessment.Negroponte also said that Iraq was at a violent and "precarious juncture," he stressed concern over an increasingly confident Hizbollah and outlined a seriesof other threats to the United States, including from Somalia, Iran and Syria.

Negroponte became the first National Intelligence director in April 2005 but is shortly due to move to the state department where he will become CondoleezzaRice's deputy. President Bush last week named retired Navy Vice Admiral Mike McConnell to replace Negroponte as the new chief of intelligence. McConnell said hewould work to increase the coordination between the nation's 16 different spy agencies.Vice Admiral Mike McConnell:I plan to continue the strong emphasis on integration of the community to better serve all of our customers. That will mean better sharing of information, increased focus on customer needs and service, improved security processes, and deeper penetration of our targets to provide the needed information for tactical, operational and strategic decision-making. "

McConnell is a former director of the National Security Agency and the current director of defense programs at Booz Allen -- one of the nation's biggestdefense and intelligence contractors. Under his watch, Booz Allen has been deeply involved in some of the most controversial counterterrorism programs run bythe Bush administration, including the infamous Total Information Awareness data-mining scheme. McConnell has also been a leading figure in outsourcing U.S.intelligence operations to private industry.------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- -Tim Shorrock, is an independent journalist who has been closely following this story. He is currently working on a book about the privatization of intelligence. Hisreports have appeared in The Nation, Mother Jones and Harpers. Read Tim's article "The spy who came in from the boardroom".

Simultaneous Announcement to be Made from Washington, D.C. and London; Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to Underscore "Most Perilous Period Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

NEWS ADVISORY//January 17, 2006:The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) will move the minute hand of the "Doomsday Clock" on January 17, 2007, the first such change to the Clock since February 2002. The major new step reflects growing concerns about a "Second Nuclear Age" marked by grave threats, including: nuclear ambitions in Iran and North Korea, unsecured nuclear materials in Russia and elsewhere, the continuing "launch-ready" status of 2,000 of the 25,000 nuclear weapons held by the U.S. and Russia, escalating terrorism, and new pressure from climate change for expanded civilian nuclear power that could increase proliferation risks.

The BAS news event will take place simultaneously on January 17th at 9:30 a.m. ET at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., and at 2:30 p.m. GMT in London at The Royal Society.

News event speakers will include:

- Stephen Hawking, professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and a fellow of The Royal Society;

- Sir Martin Rees, president of The Royal Society, and professor of cosmology and astrophysics and master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge;

- Lawrence M. Krauss, professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University; and

- Ambassador Thomas Pickering, a BAS director and co-chair of the International Crisis Group.

A live, two-way satellite feed (with full Q&A) will connect the Washington, D.C., and London news events.

TO PARTICIPATE IN PERSON: You can join us for the simultaneous, two-site news event taking place on January 17, 2007 -- 9:30 a.m. ET, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Auditorium, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, D.C.; and 2:30 p.m. GMT, The Royal Society, Wellcome Trust Lecture Hall, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London. Please RSVP in advance by contacting Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266, or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.

CAN'T PARTICIPATE IN PERSON?: In the U.S., reporters can join this live, phone-based global news conference at 9:30 a.m. ET on January 17, 2007 by dialing 1 (800) 860-2442. (Media in and around London should dial 0800-028-0531. All other reporters outside of the U.S. and the London area should dial 001-412-858- 4600, which is not a toll-free line.) Ask for the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock" news event. A streaming audio replay of the news event will be available on the Web at:http://www.thebulletin.org as of 6 p.m. ET/11 p.m. GMT on January 17, 2007.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded in 1945 by University of Chicago scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project and were deeply concerned about the use of nuclear weapons and nuclear war. In 1947 the Bulletin introduced its clock to convey the perils posed by nuclear weapons through a simple design. The "Doomsday Clock" evoked both the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero). In 1949 Bulletin leaders realized that movement of the minute hand would signal the organization' s assessment of world events. The decision to move the minute hand is made by the Bulletin's Board of Directors in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes 18 Nobel Laureates. The Bulletin's "Doomsday Clock" has become a universally recognized indicator of the world's vulnerability to nuclear weapons and other threats. Additional information is available on the Web at http://www.thebulletin.org.

Toronto Events to Mark Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 15

Martin Luther King Day tends to become a very sanitized event that neglects the radical history of the civil rights movement and is used by authorities to tell us that racism was then in the bad old days, and that things are better now. It's crucial to remember that by the end of his life, King was criticizing the very foundation of "western society," built as it is on racism, war, and poverty.

Please consider attending both of the events below as we remind ourselves we still have a long way to go when it comes to the social justice King and so many others fought for and continue to fight for.

1. Join us on Martin Luther King Day at Toronto's Deportation Factory...

Support Canada's Secret Trial Detainees and Close Guantanamo North Monday, January 15, 12 Noon Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), 6900 Airport Road. Rides leave downtown Toronto at 11 am sharp (call 416-651-5800 to book a seat or if you can drive folks up)!

January 15 marks day 51 of a hunger strike by secret trial detainee Mohammad Mahjoub, currently being denied medical care at Kingston, Ontario's Guantanamo North facility. Fellow detainees Mahmoud Jaballah and Hassan Almrei will mark 40 days of their hunger strike, protesting their conditions of detention. Stockwell Day, minister responsible for the CBSA (which runs the Guantanamo North facility at Millhaven Penitentiary),refuses to negotiate with the detainees, whose lives are once again at grave risk as the hunger strikes continues.WHY CBSA?The facility at 6900 Airport Road is a factory that produces human misery: it's "enforcement" and "removals" units are responsible for rounding up many of the 12,000+ human beings who are forcibly deported from this country and returned to uncertain fates every year. It is here that agents of the CBSA daily work in defiance of the Convention Against Torture, which prohibits the deportation of ANYONE to face torture. All of Canada's secret trial detainees (and those under draconian bail conditions) face deportation to torture, yet the federal government continues efforts to deport them to Syria, Egypt, Algeria, and Morocco.

Our annual Martin Luther King day action is part of a series of national actions calling for an end to indefinite detention and deportation to torture that are taking place January 11-15. Join us in the loving spirit of radical, transformative justice that served as a cornerstone of the nonviolent civil rights movement!"A time comes when silence is betrayal. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers and sisters." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

BACKGROUNDJanuary 11, 2007 marks 5 years since the official opening of Guantanamo Bay, a detention and torture centre run by the United States in Cuba that has been a legal black hole for countless people swept up in the terror of war. While many have been released (after spending upwards of four or more years without being charged or given a trial), hundreds of others languish under illegal detention, facing inhumane conditions without access to the outside world.

Canada has its own Guantanamo Bay, located in Millhaven Penitentiary, Kingston. Here, three "security certificate" detainees who have been held upwards of seven years without charge on secret evidence, are fighting deportation to torture. All are currently on hunger strike protesting their conditions of detention, including denial of medical treatment. Two other men, also held between two and four years, are currently "out" on some of the most severe restrictions on human liberty ever imposed in a Canadian bail release. These draconian restrictions also curtail the freedoms of their entire families. They too continue to live under the threat ofdeportation to torture.

Human rights groups in the U.S. are calling for international actions on January 11 for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We join in that call, adding our own demand for the closure of Guantanamo Bay North, right here in Canada. Actions in Canada are planned from coast to coast between January 11 and 15.

Join us to demand that the Canadian government:1. Immediately close Kingston Immigration Holding Centre (Guantanamo Bay North)2. Immediately release Canada's secret trial "security certificate" detainees or provide them with a fair, transparent, open trial.3. End all proceedings to deport the Secret Trial Five (Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, Hassan Almrei, Mohamed Harkat, Adil Charkaoui)4. Abolish security certificates and end deportation to torture.5. Immediately condemn the illegal Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Contact the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada at tasc@web.ca or(416) 651-5800.

++++++++++

2. Martin Luther King Day Book LaunchMonday January 15, 2007, 7pmVictory Café581 Markham Street, Toronto(near intersection of Bloor Street West and Bathurst)

"Blue Cage at Midnight"A book of poetry by Gary Freeman[25 year library worker presently fighting extradition to the U.S.A. over an incident during the Civil Rights Era]

Foreword by: Governor General Awardee, George Elliott Clarke"Mr Freeman's poetry is spiky, tough, explosive...he is a master of theparable and the aphorism."

Gary has been incarcerated without bail since July, 2004, for an incident that took place in 1969 Chicago. All the evidence from that day (during which an officer was injured) has been destroyed; most of the witnesses are dead. The extradition is based on false and contradictory "evidence," the investigation has been led by the officer himself, and Chicago remains a place of deep-seated racism and violence directed at African Americans. Chicago police were recently implicated in torture of detainees over a 20-year period in the Burge Report. However, city officials have declinedto prosecute officers involved in torture, claiming the cases are too old. Yet they are trying to disrupt the life of the Freeman family, who have lived peacefully in Canada for decades, contributing to the community and trying to live out the ideals of social justice.